ESPN did an interview with Jeremy Shapp as interviewer...no cameras allowed but they showed excerpts and sound bites.

I believe the guy. I feel horrible for the guy.

Let's remember folks, this wasn't just an online relationship. They talked on the phone and Manti was in contact with her "siblings" as well. He was completely played from all angles. I now doubt that he was involved.

I heard the interview and I believe Manti now too...it is absolutely insane how far the hoaxters took this for 3 years and for what? For nothing...just shits and giggles, not money.

I can see making one phone call or two for a laugh, but THEY STAYED ON THE PHONE WITH HIM FOR ENTIRE NIGHTS....WTF!!!

I've met mormon kids out to NY for the first time (they come on trips pushing the religion) and they are so ridiculously sheltered. If Te'o home life was like that, i could see people getting over on him. The story is just so freaking ridiculous.

We've also had people (on this board) tell us stories of people getting over on them for long periods of time. It's not ridiculous as it sounds unfortunately.

After reading the Schapp interview, I believe Manti, I believe he was duped, and I believe the hoaxers are complete psychopaths. Manti looks like a fool but I do believe he was duped after the interview.

I actually believe Te'o got catfished. I also believe he embellished his relationship to avoid ridicule and maybe earn some sympathy.

I just think it's not Schaap's place to give his opinion after the interview in this case (he got access in exchange for unusual restrictions). He and his audience would have been better served just playing the audio and letting people reach their own conclusions. Te'o doesn't need a stenographer if he wants to talk.

Ironically some in the media are uncritically parroting the latest sob story which is what started this fiasco in the first place...

If I'm Te'o's agent, I'd try to get him in a self-deprecating e-Harmony ad if he really wants this to blow over...

Damn, I heard somewhere that the guy behind this entire hoax is in hiding or something cause he's scared as shit lol.

I don't really wish pain on anyone but the ****er should be scared as shit and he needs to pay for his shit. Don't forget he and the two other people in this scandal did this shit before to one of their cousins.

It's one thing if he catfished a scumbag like Pacman Jones where it would be funny and justified but Teo seems like a good guy.

I don't really wish pain on anyone but the ****er should be scared as shit and he needs to pay for his shit. Don't forget he and the two other people in this scandal did this shit before to one of their cousins.

It's one thing if he catfished a scumbag like Pacman Jones where it would be funny and justified but Teo seems like a good guy.

No it's not one thing if it were Pacman Jones. The losers involved in this should receive the same consequences regardless. What kind of twisted human being so you have to be to pull this off for so long? That clown should be scared and an ass whipping is in his future. I hope this hurts his career plans for now whatever he was deciding to do. It makes you wonder who else he did this or is doing this too? Doesn't even have to be this imaginary female he used. Pathetic. I wonder what the females look like? I have a stereotypical visual of them.

I don't really care if Te'o was taken for a ride. His timelines still don't match up. He still blatantly lied to make the relationship seem like something it clearly wasn't

His only defense for not trying to visit at the hospital was "I dunno never crossed my mind, I was in school or something."

Except he CAN be placed in LA when she was supposedly in the hospital via his own twitter postings.

Again, THE LOVE OF HIS LIFE, the woman he claims he spent 8 hours a day on the phone with, it just never crossed his mind to visit her at the hospital? Total bullshit.

Dude is full of shit. He played up the death for sympathy and its biting him in the ass. You can't trust jack shit coming from his mouth because he is a proven liar.

and people just slurping up ESPN and SIs spin on this is ridiculous. This whole he is a total victim crap is a farce. Regardless of when he knew, its still plain as day he has been lying his ass off about it for a long time.

Hell, even the statements from Notre Dame the other night contradict him. He says he didn't know she wasn't real until a couple nights ago? So the whole investigation ND says they did which they gave to the Te'o's weeks ago didn't prove to him she was fake? Really?

Do you realize how incredibly STUPID he would have to be for his version of events to be any kind of plausible? And that STILL does not get him around "tailoring" (ie LYING) about quite a few details involving the relationship.

The fact that he brought a lawyer and refused to be on camera is a huge red flag that he knows/knew more than he is letting on.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bano114

See I would be more inclined to believe he wasn't involved if it weren't for one simple thing.

Why did he never insist on video chatting with her? You know how easy it is to make a Skype account? iPhones/iPods are so common maybe they could have facetimed?

People expect me to believe that he felt so strongly about this girl yet he never suggested doing these things?

I think he was duped at first, figured it out and went along with it to boost his publicity. Alot of reports pin this guy as a real attention whore.

he actually has talked about Skyping with his parents before in interviews so its not like he doesn't know how to do it.

I don't really care if Te'o was taken for a ride. His timelines still don't match up. He still blatantly lied to make the relationship seem like something it clearly wasn't

His only defense for not trying to visit at the hospital was "I dunno never crossed my mind, I was in school or something."

Except he CAN be placed in LA when she was supposedly in the hospital via his own twitter postings.

Again, THE LOVE OF HIS LIFE, the woman he claims he spent 8 hours a day on the phone with, it just never crossed his mind to visit her at the hospital? Total bullshit.

Dude is full of shit. He played up the death for sympathy and its biting him in the ass. You can't trust jack shit coming from his mouth because he is a proven liar.

Yeah, why aren't more people mentioning this? No way he wouldn't visit "the love of his life" as you said when she had leukemia. That was one of my first thoughts.

Also, after the phone call on December 6th, why mention her in interviews multiple times?

He may have gotten tricked at first, but it's clear that after a certain point, he played along publicly for sympathy as evidenced by him mentioning her after December 6th. Even so, something still doesn't add up about this, and that's why not visit her?

So nothing weird about falling in love with a female who you never met. Who showed you few photos never new/recent photos. Who always found ways to get out of you two hooking up offline. Nothing suspicious came about your feelings besides you love a person from afar. Got on TV and professed your love over a person you never met. Ok.

I don't think it's all that uncommon. He probably just idealized many of the things that he didn't know about her. The hoaxsters probably had plenty of inside info to know what to say to the guy, and they played up the sympathy angle. Though, he said he felt crazy for falling that deeply in love with someone he never met which made him lie about having met her already.

He comes off as naive. Nah, gotta go further than that, he comes off as a pretty big moron throughout this weird story. I heard that he said he still wasn't 100% sure she was fake until just a couple days ago. His supposed dead girlfriend calls him months after her supposed death and says she had to fake her death to evade drug dealers and this guy still didn't think something was fishy? You never met her, she avoided your requests to skype, probably made excuses and avoided anything about meeting in person, she gave him stories of a car accident, a coma, leukemia and such and all along he never got suspicious?

Do you realize how incredibly STUPID he would have to be for his version of events to be any kind of plausible? And that STILL does not get him around "tailoring" (ie LYING) about quite a few details involving the relationship.

The fact that he brought a lawyer and refused to be on camera is a huge red flag that he knows/knew more than he is letting on.

It's true that he could just be admitting to mere small lies to cover up much bigger ones. It does seem weird that he never tried to meet her in person, especially to visit her in the hospital, and that he never really got that suspicious even though there were big red flags along the way. But until there's actual evidence showing that he was complicit the whole time I gotta go with him just being a big idiot.

Quote:

he actually has talked about Skyping with his parents before in interviews so its not like he doesn't know how to do it.

"Manti Te'o told Notre Dame during its investigation into his fake girlfriend that he repeatedly tried to Skype with Lennay Kekua but she refused, CBSSports.com has learned."

That didn't set off any red flags? How did she go about refusing to skype every time?

If Manti didn't play anything up, that would mean this was pretty much a full time job for the hoaxters...for 3 years...daily phone calls, tweets, etc

staying on the phone with Manti all night many nights even...

it's insanity

Manti must have embellished a lot...and Manti's father must have lied when saying she came to Hawaii to visit several times...and the Fullback from the Cardinals? I'm still not sure how he fits into all this.

I think he claimed to only know the e-persona "Lennay" casually for 3 years ,but the calls & other things only intensified in his mind after her alleged car accident about 4 months before her death in Sept.

I don't think he really considered 'he' the love of his life before the wreck/Leukemia or at least the contact wasn't as frequent.

I remembered at the time when his grandmother & 'girlfriend' with cancer/car accident died on the same day, I thought; "No one's luck can be this damn bad" But thought nothing else of it.

Anyone can get fooled online with fake photos for a short period ,but no one but a damn fool would fall in love with someone he never met in person nor physically saw & stood him up several times.